


Games We Play

by ShadyBunnie



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Attempt at Humor, Dark, Domestic Violence, Drama, Escapism, Eventual Romance, Gritty, Poverty, Rain, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trauma, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:15:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29006664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadyBunnie/pseuds/ShadyBunnie
Summary: A disgraced cop.A mother in grieving.When the news of the disappearance of a single mother's well-liked daughter hits their small town,  a manhunt begins to find her before its too late. Little do they know, her abductor is hiding in plain site.RATED M for a reason. All characters and world are my own.





	Games We Play

How does the story go again?

Girl grows up in a dirt poor family, gets slapped around by her mommy's new boyfriend (although at least this one doesn't look at her funny), tries to protect her little sister who doesn't know any better and looks up to him like he's her new daddy (but wait, isn't he better than her real one in some ways? At least he sticks around...) and paints on a smile when her teachers and friends ask her what's wrong. She's just hyperactive, mommy says at parent teacher conferences. Just has too much energy than she knows what to deal with. Mommy cant take her to after school programs or let her do gymnastics because she can't drive, not yet (mommy's not allowed to get her license) and she won't be anywhere with him she has to be alone. She just wants to spend more time with her friends, go to the mall, have sleepovers like _normal_ kids her age, but mommy says she doesn't have the time, and and their _new_ daddy prefers for them to stay at home where he can keep an eye on them. 

So days pass by, and weeks.

Months.

Until it's her 12th birthday, and mommy says she has a special birthday planned for her, inviting all her friends. What friends, she wonders? She hasn't been able to spend any time with them outside of school, she's missed important things that are friendship defining, and they don't recognize her anymore (does she even recognize herself?) Instead she spends all her time by herself: she eats by herself, she plays by herself (usually reading in a hidden corner of the library where no one will bother her), and she comes home after school to be by herself in her room. Who could mommy have possibly convinced to come to her party? 

Then the day comes and she sees its a small affair - her mommy, sister (she's 9 now, and no less adoring of her new daddy than she was at 5 when he came into their lives), and her new daddy (she should really stop calling him that, shouldn't she? He hasn't left, not after 12 break ups, an attempted arrest, and the many women mommy has tracked him down with; yet she said she didn't have any time to help her with her homework, when she was failing math?) 

Daddy's had a little too much to drink, his eyes are glassy and his cheeks reddened. But he's smiling, and everything seems like it'll be OK this time. There's a lightness in her chest, a funny feeling she almost didn't recognize because of how long it had been since she felt happy. Honest to God happy. Mommy pulls out the empanadas, they're homemade, courtesy of her Portuguese heritage, and they're cooling on the rack while she sets the table. The cartoons blare in the background, her favorite, an Adult Swim show on her favorite channel. But then mommy makes the mistake of checking on daddy's phone when he's using the bathroom. Her mood sours instantly, she can feel it, like a storm brewing. Mommy confronts him when he comes back into the living room. 

It's worse this time. There's a lot of screaming, throwing, and hitting. She's scared, her and her sister huddling together in a corner too afraid to go move upstairs where it's safer, as if any other noise might spook them into finding other targets for their rage. Mommy accuses him of cheating, of sleeping with another woman (she didn't understand why it would be bad to sleep with someone else, she liked cuddling?), but he doesn't put up a fight anymore, which is not like him; he takes a different approach, stays real quiet: "Let it all out," he says calmly, not denying, not trying to change the subject. For some inexplicable reason this makes Mommy angrier, and for the first time she scares her and her sister. She hits _him._ His chest, his arms, even his face and he does nothing to stop her. When Mommy's through with him he looks every color of the rainbow, but mostly red. Blood is dripping from his mouth, and his left eye is swelling up. Mommy is standing over his slumped figure on the couch, panting, hair wild and eyes crazed, fists clenched. When her sister makes the mistake of crying, Mommy's head snaps in their direction, and she points to the stairs. "Go to your rooms," she barks.

They scatter like rats up the compact staircase, choosing her room over Leena's and lie in wait on the bed with their heads buried under the blanket never letting go for a second. She chants a familiar rhyme that her sister adores, she just learned it in school the other day and has been singing it ever since:

_"Hickory, hickory bumble bee, won't you say your name for me?"_

A beat. 

_"Aaliyah..."_ She whispers. 

At some point (she didn't know when, just that it was dark), all became quiet. They peeked out from under the covers, looking at each other with wide eyes. 

"Should we-" 

"Wait, hush," she cupped her sister's mouth, listening in the distance. Sirens were blaring, sounding louder every second. They rushed to the window that overlooked the compound they lived in, seeing people gathering and shuffling to their building. Her heart raced a mile a minute. They weren't coming because of the fights, were they? And why _this_ time? (Daddy wouldn't be happy.)

Then, a scream. 

"Aaliyah," she cried. The bedroom door was left open, her sister nowhere in sight. 

"No! Aaliyah!" She raced down the stairs two at a time. When she got to the bottom her eyes fixed on the scene before her, not quite believing what she was looking at, but it was something that would change her life forever. 

"He thought he could mess around behind _MY_ back?" Mommy laughed a sharp, high laugh. "Well, I showed him. Everyone thought he was some big tough guy controlling **me** , making **me** hurt, and **me** scared. They were wrong. If I'd wanted to leave I would've. **I** was the one in control the entire time. But I loved him, wanted you girls to have a father figure who could make us a family, you know? And what does he do? Throw it back in our faces. He's not worth the toilet paper he shits on." She spits on him, the saliva mixing in with the rapidly flowing blood draining from the stab wound in his head. 

She stares at it flowing like a rushing waterfall over the linoleum sandy tiled flooring, spick and span (Mommy did another one of her daily deep cleans this morning), and she had the oddest thought: It'll be a big mess she'll have to clean up now. 

~ 

"What's that?" Her sister asks, doe-eyed. 

Before the officer can answer, she does. "Not a good place, Liya. It's where kids without daddy's and mommy's go."

"Or," the officer flicks a look at the older of the pair. "We can look at other options. There's such a thing called kinship care. It's when family members, like aunts and uncles or grandparents take you in. People that already know you and love you."

But she's skeptical, already world weary. "If they loved us, they would have come before this happened. They would have done something to stop it."

The officer's eyes softened. "Sometimes there's nothing more people can do because they don't know any better. Some bad people are better at outsmarting the good people, and that's why they couldn't have stepped in sooner."

Her sister clutches the blanket closer to her mouth. "Were mommy and daddy the bad people?" 

"They were flawed. That means they made mistakes, like you or me. And when flawed people come together, other people, like you two, can get hurt. But don't you worry. We'll find a family member to take you in, and if we don't, we'll find someone just as capable of taking care of you together. You're safe now." 


End file.
